President Barack Obama‘s (pictured) “Better Bargain for the Middle Class” plan introduction kicked off this week in grand fashion, causing a stir within the beltway and across the nation as cities struggle to create new jobs. As the economy exhibits a slow recovery, President Obama is aggressively pursuing his economic plan via a series of policy speeches, the first of which took place Tuesday afternoon in Chattanooga, Tenn. at the Amazon Fulfillment Center. And not surprisingly, Republican lawmakers have balked at the plan, even with a number of compromises partial to that party’s aims.

Flanked by Amazon workers, President Obama spoke plainly and directly about the aims of the “Better Bargain” plan. Making certain to mention the 7.2 million new jobs created in the past 40 months, Obama was frank in saying his administration and Congress needs to come together to do more:

But so far, for most of this year, we’ve seen an endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals. And we keep on shifting our way — shifting our attention away from what we should be focused on, which is how do we strengthen the middle class and grow the economy for everybody?

And as Washington heads toward yet another budget debate, the stakes couldn’t be higher. And that’s why I’m visiting cities and towns like this -– to lay out my ideas for how we can build on the cornerstone of what it means to be middle class in America.

So I’m doing a series of speeches over the next several weeks, but I came to Chattanooga today to talk about the first and most important cornerstone of middle-class security, and that’s a good job in a durable, growing industry.

President Obama went on to list a series of actions that would boost the aims of his economic plan and explained how manufacturing jobs have seen recent growth. Infrastructure was another focal point of growth and gave way to the President mentioning his “Fix It First” plan, which will focus on the nation’s most immediate repair needs, such as bridges, roads, and other related items. Jobs in the energy industry also surfaced during the President’s speech in addition to exporting.